The ‘akshully im an intellectual’ vibe coming from the naysayer camp is really not helping the reasons to not use AI generated artwork.
People have used Artbreeder for years without any kerfuffle. I get that it’s trendy to be the bohemien and trash on the “new” thing like it’s 1845 and the first photographs are going to ruin portrait painting. Oh no! The gentry will no longer be the only people who can have images of themselves preserved for posterity, the plebeians have access to image memoralization.
I could understand in cases where there’s actual theft involved of someone’s art and then edited over or directly cloned by AI tools, to then be sold on for actual money. But we are talking hobbyists making character reference art for a niche online past-time and we’ve needed a near 300 post ‘debate’ on something that is as simple in solution to what the great ‘Tyler The Creator’ said and I paraphrase
“just walk away from the screen and close your eyes.”
“People are upset because the next step of ‘get a real job’ is threatening all the hard work and passion that has been poured in over the years, so logically Artists are being mean and elitist so Im going to enable the grift and art theft that they’re upset about! That’ll learn 'em!”
An iota of understanding of cause and effect from some people, I beg…
“All those mean artists, gatekeeping art, now I have the ability to-”
Unspecified Relative in Deity, the vast majority of the time people couldn’t be convinced to start drawing because “It’s not a real job” or “There’s no money in this!”
The gate was held wide open with a welcome mat, and those sorts of people were busy headbutting the wall like some kind of Sims character.
Gentlemen, how much longer are we going to endure the terrible burden thrust on us, the ruthless oppression by the ELITE a.k.a. artists on the internet
And for more rehashed AI bro apologia:
the “AI is democratization of art” take: art is already as democratic as picking up a pencil or free software like krita or blender and watching some free youtube tutorials; Especially compared to the proposed alternative of using a commercial tool to make images that will likely be uncopyrightable and not “yours” in the IP sense. sure knock yourself out but don’t pretend it’s some grand liberation of art from gatekeepers
the “AI is to art what photography was to portrait painting” take: the comparision works only in an abstract sense - unlike a commissioned portrait in 1845, OC art is incredibly available especially with how eagerly artists undercut themselves (bad), and unlike a 1845 peasant, you can try it yourself at pretty much no cost.
There is truth that AI can be an aid and part of the artistic process, same as how photography quickly became a great tool for painters; however photography still required skill, work and vision and didn’t make creative or technical decisions for you, you didn’t get a finished output by pressing a button on a magic box, and it wasn’t built from a massive body of existing art. Progress does move on but presenting ML image generation as “another new thing the oldtimers are grumbling about, just like photography” is dishonest and intended to shut down concerns
As someone who has actually done a bit of work in an OG dark-room, ^ THIS ^.
And yes, absolutely; the majority of artists on the net are more than happy to talk about techniques, hints and tricks, put up free brushes for programs, tend to livestream or post WIP stuff, the works. Tutorials and the like are in the dozens.
“But the artists are-!”
Mostly trying to survive on peanut pay, avoid Big Corpos making their lives more hell than they already are, and dealing with the sheer whiplash of being told for decades that ‘art is not a real job’, despite being a cornerstone of the massively lucrative film and games industries, to ‘Oh, now anyone can get in to art and make lots of money!’
If AI art bros really wanted to be useful, they’d just design AI tools to help actual artists paint, like idk create lightning and calculate the shading or whatnot and stuff
not just an AI that has learnt how to ctrl c + ctrl v
I do also want to point out that an amusing thing alot of techbros/aibros misunderstand completely, especially the group that wants to defend ai art because “its free/cheaper for the common people”.
You are aware that the really good-looking ai art(that actually doesn’t look atrocious) was 95% done by a paid service. And they cost quite alot/if not enough as just paying an artist to do it for you instead.
Didn’t help that they also tended to overcharge quite alot. Sure buying art of your character can be expensive, but most artists still seem to be quite lenient with the pricing more than they could be.
In WoW I’ve even seen it not be that uncommon(atleast in later years) to for the more basic artworks also just accept enough gold to fund a token.
about anyone other than ourselves” vibe coming from the yaysayer camp?